


Drawings from School (Hearts and Ice Remix)

by Neverever



Category: Marvel 616, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Elementary School, Family Feels, M/M, Parenthood, Steve Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:08:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22623808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverever/pseuds/Neverever
Summary: Tony and Steve's daughter Sarah comes home with her drawings, which hits Steve a little hard.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 3
Kudos: 131
Collections: 2020 Captain America/Iron Man Relay Remix





	Drawings from School (Hearts and Ice Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [avengersincamphalfbloodstardis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avengersincamphalfbloodstardis/gifts).
  * Inspired by [rewrite the past](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22443553) by [avengersincamphalfbloodstardis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avengersincamphalfbloodstardis/pseuds/avengersincamphalfbloodstardis). 



> Done for the 2020 Cap-IM Remix Relay (fruit chain).
> 
> Thanks to my beta, arms_plutonic!

Steve was on After School Duty this week. 

Five-year old Sarah dumped papers, a rubber duck and a juice box out of her tiny Captain Marvel backpack all over the kitchen table. She had pulled out a chair at the table when Steve noticed her paint-flecked hands.

“Pumpkin, go wash your hands before lunch.”

Sarah grumpily marched off to wash her hands. Tony walked in and noted the pile on the table. “Sarah’s home.”

Steve wasn’t entirely reconciled to sending Sarah to private school. Tony had reasonable concerns about security, which ruled out public school and a number of private schools. Steve didn’t like the idea of home schooling, and neither of them wanted to take Reed up on his invite for Sarah to join the Future Foundation. The solution was an exclusive private school that accepted students only on referrals and recommendations. 

Tony hung the backpack on the back of a chair. “I hoped we could talk before Sarah got home -- the school called.”

“Oh. About what this time? We’d fixed that problem with the Elementary Chinese class --”

“Not that.”

“Was it Quiet Time again?”

Tony laughed. “No. Just because our daughter takes nearly 100 percent after you, doesn’t mean that she’s fomenting rebellion over more recess time. Again.”

Sarah yelled, “Daddy!” and launched herself into Tony. Tony’s little princess was dressed in khaki pants, pink sweater and sparkly sneakers that lit up as she walked.

“Love you too, Squirt.” Tony swung her up and sat her down in her chair. “What did you do in school today?”

Steve sliced an apple while Sarah chattered to Tony about the ride home with Happy, the pigeons she saw at school, and the rock a friend found on the ground at recess. She smoothed a wad of paper with her hands as she talked. 

Steve loved these quiet little moments with his family. Tony was brilliant with the kids. The only thing better would be if Jimmy could join them, but he was sick upstairs and the nanny was watching him. He ruffled Sarah’s hair as he set down the peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread with no crusts, sliced apple, and Doritos. 

He had been the one who was nervous about kids. All he could think about was how fragile children were and all the terrible things that could happen to them. He couldn’t possibly be a good father, considering his own father’s failings. Tony had kindly and patiently countered every single one of Steve’s arguments until Steve could no longer deny Tony’s positivity.

He had been so, so wrong about it all. Now he couldn’t imagine life without them -- Tony, Sarah and baby Jimmy. He’d kill anyone who dared try to hurt a single hair on their head.

Sarah’s raucous laugh was proof against the cold burning ice in his memory and the misery of the past. How could life be bad when his daughter drew a sparkly crayon mural of all the Avengers as mer-people with her dads in matching sea crowns in the middle?

“We have to hang this up on the refrigerator,” Steve said, holding up Sarah’s latest masterpiece. 

“We should frame it and hang it up in the workshop,” Tony added. 

Someday soon Tony would run out of room for all the framed art in the workshop. He joked about inventing an extra-dimensional wall to hang even more art.

Sarah had drawn more mer-people, including Tony with a red and gold tail and repulsors shooting blue light and Steve with a blue tail and his shield. That last picture had a corner torn off.

“What happened here, pumpkin?” Steve asked.

“Lucas tore it. He called me stupid. Said Cap America and Iron Man can’t be mermen.” Sarah grabbed an apple slice. “Lucas is stupid. You’re my dads. You can do anything.”

Well, that landed Lucas from Sarah’s School on Steve’s Bad Person list. 

They hadn’t hidden that they were superheroes from Sarah or Jimmy. The Avengers and a greater part of the New York superhero community served as their extended family. And the school hadn’t blinked when Tony and Steve handed in an extensive contact and emergency back-up list for Sarah when she enrolled. 

“He took my drawing, I hit him. He cried and ran to Miss Gina. Look, Daddy.” Sarah held up another picture for Tony.

Steve exchanged a meaningful look with Tony. That had to be the reason the school called. Tony shook his head ‘no.’ Steve gave him a baffled look. 

“I don’t want any more,” Sarah said, pushing the sandwich to the side. “Can I have a cookie?”

Steve eyed the sandwich and apple slices against the rubric of how much real food went into his daughter to determine if a cookie was allowed. 

“It was a big sandwich,” prompted Tony. 

Tony was absolutely spoiling each of their children as best he could. They nearly lost Sarah in a pile of Christmas gifts last December. 

“Okay.” Steve pulled the chocolate chip cookies out of the pantry, the homemade ones Rhodey sent from Atlanta. 

“Thanks, Dad!” Sarah said.

Meanwhile Tony was unfolding the rest of Sarah’s pile of paper. He sorted the worksheets with the gold stars and several of Sarah’s drawings to the side.

“I wanna give it to Dad,” Sarah said with half a cookie in her mouth. She reached for the last paper in Tony’s hand. 

Sarah proudly handed it over to Steve. He opened it to find a drawing of him, covered in ice and water and surrounded by hearts, Iron Man and the other Avengers. Sarah scrambled to stand up on her chair. “See, Dad, it’s the Avengers and you. You’re cold and they’re warming you up.”

Steve hugged his daughter tightly. “That’s a wonderful picture.”

Tony stood up to join them. “Wow, kitten. Jan would be proud of that dress.” Sarah had drawn Jan in a yellow dress, wings and a crown.

“She’s a fairy!” Sarah explained.

Steve was speechless as he kept looking at the picture. “I love you,” Steve said.

“Love you, Dad,” Sarah said. She hopped off the chair and grabbed a picture off the table. “I’m going to see Jimmy.” She bounded off down the hallway.

Tony tugged Steve back. “That’s why the school called,” Tony explained. “Miss Gina wanted to talk about that picture -- I explained that we told Sarah everything and that it was fine if Sarah wanted to draw you in the ice.”

“She wasn’t wrong. About the hearts.”

Tony laughed. “No, she wasn’t. I’ve told her many times that I loved you the moment I saw you.”

Steve took out his personal phone to take a picture -- wallpaper for his phone. Maybe even for his official Avengers phone. 

“It wasn’t about her hitting Lucas?”

“Nope. The teacher didn’t mention that -- but we need to keep an eye on that kid. And no -- that doesn’t mean you have to check out his parents, in case they’re AIM or HYDRA or something.”

Steve sighed. Tony knew him too well. He reluctantly agreed, “Okay, I won’t.”

“That’s great, because I already did.”

Steve picked up the picture again. “We’re framing this and hanging it in the bedroom.” He braced for Tony to protest that it clashed with the interior design.

Instead, Tony agreed. “That’s exactly what we are going to do.”


End file.
